Barbecue grills come in many sizes and configurations, ranging from the very small and portable hibachi type grills to the more elaborate gas type grills. As a general rule, the more elaborate the grill, the more assembly that is typically required by the ultimate consumer of these products. Because larger grills contain more components, including a cart, side burners, side trays and other miscellaneous parts requiring assembly, it has been found that it is more cost effective to ship the barbecue grill and its components in a disassembled state.
Often the degree of assembly required is a disincentive to purchasing one of the more elaborate grills. Ideally, at least in the mind of the consumer, grills would be packaged and shipped in a partly assembled state to minimize the amount of assembly. Thus the consumer could be spared the trouble and sometimes aggravation associated with the assembly of a barbecue grill.
However, from the perspective of the manufacturer, the packaging and shipment of a fully assembled, or even partly assembled, barbecue grill presents a number of problems including a significant increase in the dimensions of the shipping container and consequently the shipping costs. Additionally, a fully or partly assembled grill is more susceptible to damage during shipment than a grill which is disassembled and has its components packed individually. Consequently, in order to package and ship an assembled grill special consideration would have to be given to protecting the assembled grill from damage during shipment which would further increase the costs.
One solution known in the prior art is to provide a barbecue grill having a stand with foldable legs. However, such prior art designs use a conventional scissors-leg designs which can result in excess length, even in the folded or collapsed position. Thus even collapsed these grills tend to have a longer profile. Additionally, these prior art designs fail to consider the damage which may result from shipping a partly assembled barbecue grill.